Shea Lopez's Brazil Picks
(Wednesday, April 21, 2010)
Brazil Picks
Shea Lopez breaks down his team, and the judges.
By Shea Lopez
With a solid showing at Bells I left my FS team exactly the same. Not sure who the wildcards will be at this time, but they will definitely be worth a look.
Kelly: I love to witness the soap opera that is his life. Last I heard he was running daily on his broken foot to make sure it wasn't properly healed for Brazil. What fun would winning be if there wasn't extra challenges involved or a built-in excuse if a loss occurs.
Bobby: Really seems to be putting his best foot forward for his new sponsor O'neill. All that positive action is really paying off this year.
Jordy: Brazil could be the event that progressive surfing takes the center stage and Jordy owns that stage in competition.
Dane: He owns the free surfs but has problems with his consistency. In Brazil, the shorter period wind swell and higher wave count will give him more opportunities to get it right.
Owen: sooner or later he has to find some waves to perform on in WT competition. I'm thinking it's going to be sooner.
Dusty: next three events all look good for him, actually his well rounded act looks good at every event.
Simpo: Possible HB pier type surf could be simply perfect for Simpo's breakout event.
Jadson: Will be surfing in front of a very vocal home crowd. Where some surfers will break under the pressure he should feed off it. If the conditions allow opportunity for his huge frontside air 3's. sores of 9 and above are possible on every wave he takes off on.
Now to elaborate on how surfing is judged and some issues discussed on the FS forum page.
In all sports the top scores are given for perfect execution through the entirety of the action...except Surfing. Surfers should be held to the same standards and not be allowed to mess up the beginning or end of a ride, recover in dramatic fashion, then receive a higher score for a ride that was in shambles. The suspense involved in an amazing recovery is very thrilling, and the ride should still score high, just not higher than if the same ride was performed perfectly. Kelly's other top score in the final at Bells was a much better ride and received barely a mention.
As the level of surfing rises at every event, the judging will have to keep lowering the scores of average surfing. This will allow them to keep the scale open for when the truly amazing happens. Josh Kerr almost fell victim to the judges overscoring Taj in the final at Margaret's. When Kerr busted out two perfect airs on one wave he should of been awarded a high enough score to take the lead. Instead, he still needed another wave to get his two wave total above Taj's. I'm for more scores in the 3-6 point range and only rarely seeing an 8 point or higher score be thrown out.
(Wednesday, April 21, 2010)
Brazil Picks
Shea Lopez breaks down his team, and the judges.
By Shea Lopez
With a solid showing at Bells I left my FS team exactly the same. Not sure who the wildcards will be at this time, but they will definitely be worth a look.
Kelly: I love to witness the soap opera that is his life. Last I heard he was running daily on his broken foot to make sure it wasn't properly healed for Brazil. What fun would winning be if there wasn't extra challenges involved or a built-in excuse if a loss occurs.
Bobby: Really seems to be putting his best foot forward for his new sponsor O'neill. All that positive action is really paying off this year.
Jordy: Brazil could be the event that progressive surfing takes the center stage and Jordy owns that stage in competition.
Dane: He owns the free surfs but has problems with his consistency. In Brazil, the shorter period wind swell and higher wave count will give him more opportunities to get it right.
Owen: sooner or later he has to find some waves to perform on in WT competition. I'm thinking it's going to be sooner.
Dusty: next three events all look good for him, actually his well rounded act looks good at every event.
Simpo: Possible HB pier type surf could be simply perfect for Simpo's breakout event.
Jadson: Will be surfing in front of a very vocal home crowd. Where some surfers will break under the pressure he should feed off it. If the conditions allow opportunity for his huge frontside air 3's. sores of 9 and above are possible on every wave he takes off on.
Now to elaborate on how surfing is judged and some issues discussed on the FS forum page.
In all sports the top scores are given for perfect execution through the entirety of the action...except Surfing. Surfers should be held to the same standards and not be allowed to mess up the beginning or end of a ride, recover in dramatic fashion, then receive a higher score for a ride that was in shambles. The suspense involved in an amazing recovery is very thrilling, and the ride should still score high, just not higher than if the same ride was performed perfectly. Kelly's other top score in the final at Bells was a much better ride and received barely a mention.
As the level of surfing rises at every event, the judging will have to keep lowering the scores of average surfing. This will allow them to keep the scale open for when the truly amazing happens. Josh Kerr almost fell victim to the judges overscoring Taj in the final at Margaret's. When Kerr busted out two perfect airs on one wave he should of been awarded a high enough score to take the lead. Instead, he still needed another wave to get his two wave total above Taj's. I'm for more scores in the 3-6 point range and only rarely seeing an 8 point or higher score be thrown out.
